Here are some foreign players with influence in Lebanon, often used as a proxy battleground for regional conflicts.
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Syria Syria has been a main player since its troops intervened in 1976, early in Lebanon's civil war.
The Syrians remained for 29 years until an outcry over the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, which many Lebanese blame on Damascus, forced them to pull out.
Damascus has never established formal diplomatic ties with its smaller neighbor, which France carved out from Syria in 1920, but maintains close economic and social ties. Syrian leaders have always said Lebanon could be used against them by their enemies.
Syria wields influence through its local allies, mainly the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal factions, and intelligence networks. |
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Iran Shiite-led Iran is Hezbollah's other main backer, providing arms and money to the guerrilla group and political party, which held off the Israeli army in a 2006 war in Lebanon that began after its fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.
Tehran sees Hezbollah as an indispensable ally in any future conflict with Israel over Iran's disputed nuclear program. |
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United States Washington has sent troops to Lebanon twice in the past half-century to prop up governments it favored. In February, the USS Cole destroyer deployed off the Lebanese coast to show support for the anti-Syrian ruling coalition.
President George W. Bush's administration has held up Lebanon as a beacon of democracy in the region.
Bush has vowed to prevent Iran, a sworn foe of Israel, from acquiring nuclear bombs and wants to stop it from emerging as a regional power.
The United States accuses Syria of fomenting instability in Lebanon, ignoring the flow of militants to Iraq through its borders, and hurting Middle East peace efforts through its support of Hezbollah and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Washington wants to keep Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government in power in Beirut, partly to support a U.N. tribunal to try Hariri's killers and partly to keep up pressure on Hezbollah over its weapons.
A U.N. Security Council resolution calls for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon. Hezbollah rejects this, saying it needs its arsenal to resist Israel. |
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France France has strong historical ties with its former colony. A firm supporter of the Siniora government, Paris has tried without success to broker an end to the political crisis.
France would like Lebanon's Christian community to maintain its influence in domestic politics, but this has eroded because the country's political divide has also split the Christians.
France hosted a donor conference to help Lebanon recover from the 2006 war and has an important contingent in the United Nations peacekeeping force in the south. |
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Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, whose relations with Syria have plummeted since Hariri's assassination, backs Siniora's Sunni-led government and is a major aid donor for Lebanon.
The kingdom accused Hezbollah of provoking Lebanon's 2006 war with Israel.
Along with other U.S. allies in the region, Riyadh fears the growing influence of Iran in Lebanon and elsewhere. But it has worked with Tehran to keep Shiite-Sunni tensions from spiraling out of control in Lebanon. |
